Rancho Santa Fe physician joins Staff at Scripps Proton Therapy Center

Longtime Rancho Santa Fe resident Huan Giap, M.D., Ph.D., has joined the medical staff at the Scripps Proton Therapy Center, a $220 million cancer care facility in Mira Mesa that’s expected to open for patient care in late-summer 2013.

Giap joins Scripps Clinic as chief of breast, gastrointestinal and lung proton beam therapy. With Scripps, he will consult with patients and plan and manage their treatment.

From 1998 to 2008, Giap served as a radiation oncologist with Scripps Clinic. More recently, he was chief medical officer for Advanced Particle Therapy (developer of Scripps Proton Therapy Center). Giap co-chairs the publication committee and serves on the executive committee of the Particle Therapy Co-Operative Group. He is also editor-in-chief of the peer-reviewed International Journal of Medical Physics, Clinical Engineering and Radiation Oncology. Additionally, he is associate editor-in-chief of the journal Translational Cancer Research.

Giap received his medical and doctorate degrees from the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston, Texas, in a medical scientist training program sponsored by the National Institutes of Health. He completed his internship at St. Joseph Medical Center in Houston and his residency at Loma Linda University Medical Center.

The Scripps Proton Therapy Center will be San Diego County’s first facility to offer advanced proton therapy to cancer patients – and just the third such facility west of the Rockies. Proton therapy destroys tumors with greater precision and control than other radiation therapies, resulting in less damage to surrounding healthy tissue and organs.

Scripps Clinic will oversee medical services at the new center and Scripps Health will provide its clinical management services. The center is being developed by Advanced Particle Therapy, LLC, of San Diego.